


Half and Half

by mldrgrl



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Competition, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Jeopardy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:34:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25207777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mldrgrl/pseuds/mldrgrl
Summary: The dynamic duo can be quite competitive.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 2
Kudos: 91





	Half and Half

“I’m dying to get out of this suit,” Scully says. “Give me ten minutes and then we can go through the report?”

“I’ll leave the connecting door unlocked,” Mulder says as they exit their rental car and head to the doors to their rooms. “Come over when you’re done and we’ll order in.”

She sighs in relief as she kicks off her heels at the door. She tosses her blazer to the side, unbuttons her shirt, and loosens her skirt. She clips her hair back, washes her face, and changes into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt.

File folders under her arm, she taps lightly on the connecting door before she pushes it open. Mulder is sitting at the edge of the bed, tie off and buttons undone at the neck. His shirtsleeves are rolled up and he’s yelling at the TV.

“What is Mork & Mindy!” he yells. “Mork and Mindy, you idiots. Everyone knows ‘nanu nanu.’”

“We were looking for, ‘What is Mork & Mindy?’” Alex Trebeck says.

“Obviously,” Mulder says. “How did you people even get on the show?”

“What are you doing?” Scully asks.

“Playing Jeopardy.”

_ “TV Catchphrases for $400, Alex.” _

_ “Book ‘em, Danno.” _

“What is Hawaii 5-0,” Mulder yells, just as Scully says, “Hawaii 5-0.”

Mulder makes the sound of a buzzer. “You have to answer in the form of a question, Scully, or it doesn’t count.”

“I still knew the answer.”

“You mean, the question.”

“Do you want to debate the semantics of Jeopardy or go over the reports?”

“Sure, sure.”

_ “Let’s try Shakespeare Who Said it? for $200.” _

_ “Double double, toil and trouble.” _

“Who are the witches?” Mulder answers.

“Who are the three witches of Macbeth,” Scully says at the same time.

_ “Who is Macbeth?”  _ answers the first contestant to ring in.

“Oh, come on,” Scully says. “You can’t be that dumb.”

“Right?”

_ “Not quite what we’re looking for,” _ Alex answers. Finally, the second contestant answers correctly.

“Shakespeare Who Said It for $300.”

_ “I prithee daughter do not make me mad.” _

“Baptista, maybe,” Mulder answers. “Who is Baptista?”

“No, who is King Lear?” Scully disagrees.

_ “Who is King Lear?” _

_ “Who is, King Lear. Act 2, scene 4, referring to Goneril. And that will lead us to our first commercial break. More to come after these words from our sponsors.” _

“I should’ve known that one,” Mulder says, scooting over to make room for Scully on the bed. “$600 to $500, I’m winning.”

“How do you figure that?”

“You lost Hawaii 5-0 to incorrect phrasing.”

“You didn’t establish the rules. $600 to $900, I’m winning.”

“I didn’t have to establish anything, those are the inherent rules of Jeopardy. Everybody knows that.”

“Mulder, I’m here to go over these reports,” Scully answers, holding up the file folders that have been tucked under her arm the whole time. She is still standing.

“How about a little wager?”

“On what?”

“Winner orders the pizza of their choice, loser pays.”

“Come on, Mulder.”

“You don’t think you can beat me?”

“No, I know I can beat you. I just want to get this review done so I can go to bed.”

“Scully, it’s 7 o’clock. The review can wait. Unless you’re just chicken.”

“Very mature.”

“Triple dog dare you?”

Scully held her hand out as though to shake Mulder’s. “We start with a clean slate going in from the commercial and we make our own wagers on Double Jeopardy questions.”

“I’ll keep score!” Mulder leaves Scully’s handshake hanging in the breeze and jumps up to grab the complimentary pad of paper and pen on the motel desk, which she snatches from him as soon as he comes back to sit down.

“ _ I’ll _ keep score,” she says.

“You are the math geek.”

They sit through contestant bios and Alex Trebeck’s vaguely sarcastic comments on the tidbits they’ve chosen to share with the audience. When the game starts back up again, there are two answers left in Shakespeare Who Said It? and every answer available in Civil War Nicknames, The Old West, and American Folklore.

Unsurprisingly, Mulder dominates the folklore category, but they tie for two answers. They both struggle with The Old West more than Civil War Nicknames, but the answers there are easier to decipher within the clues. Mulder is up $700 when the first Daily Double comes up in The Old West.

“$200,” Scully says. “I already don’t even want to know the answer.”

“$500,” Mulder answers. 

_ “Suffering from tuberculosis and alcoholism, this dentist turned gunslinger died in a sanitarium at the age of 36.” _

“Who is Doc Holliday,” Scully answers.

“Who is Bat Master..dammit!” Mulder replies just a beat behind her.

“You should’ve known that one.”

“It was the first thing that popped into my head. What’s the damage?”

“We’re tied.”

“All right, next round it’s getting serious.”

“Prepare to pay for a large vegetarian with extra olives.”

“Ugh, vegetables on pizza is the antithesis to the point of pizza.”

“And what is the point of pizza?”

“All the pepperoni you can handle and then add in some sausage for good measure.”

“You’re a heart attack waiting to happen, Mulder. When was the last time you had your cholesterol checked?”

“In May, actually. Fit as a fiddle. Here we go, round 2.”

_ “...categories are: Before & After, Science, Word Origins, Potpourri, The Body Human, and finally, Astronomy. ” _

The contestants seem fixed at Potpourri and Before & After, to Mulder’s relief. He isn’t ready for Scully to completely smoke him in the Science and The Body Human categories. He figures if he can do well enough in the first two, he might be able to hold firm and maybe they might get to Astronomy where he can make a comeback. Sure enough, she responds so quickly in the first two Science answers he can’t even get a word out.

_ “Born this year, a sheep named this introduced the world to cloning.” _

“Dolly!” Mulder yells, too excited about knowing a Science question he forgets to phrase it properly.

“ _ Who is _ Dolly,” Scully corrects.

“Dammit!”

“Your rules.”

“I know, I know. Still, dammit.”

Blessedly, the contestants leave Science and migrate to Astronomy and since the first answer is the planet nicknamed The Red Planet, a Jeopardy equivalent of low-hanging fruit, they stick with it. The first Daily Double of the 2nd round hits them at the $800 question in Astronomy.

“I’m up by $1,600,” Scully says. “You have $3,900.”

“I’m going to make it a true Daily Double.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“$600,” Scully says, after a few moments hesitation.

Mulder worries his bottom lip with his teeth and waits for the answer to come.

_ “This spiral galaxy is named for an Ethiopian princess in Greek Mythology.” _

“What is Andromeda!” They both yell.

Mulder realizes he’s sweating after the last question and even though it paid off, he vows not to make that kind of gamble again. Scully berates herself for not being more confident in her astronomy knowledge as she now trails Mulder by $1,700, which may or may not be easy to recover from.

Time runs out before all the clues are revealed and the 2nd Daily Double is never found. By final Jeopardy, they’re nearly neck and neck, with Mulder at $9,100 and Scully at $8,500.

_ “The final category is: Computers.” _

“Good thing The Gunmen aren’t here,” Mulder says. “Gimme one of those sheets of paper and we can write our wagers and guesses like the others.”

Scully rips off a piece of paper and they both take nearly all of the commercial break to come up with their wagers. Scully folds her paper in half with the wager face down. Mulder turns his over and places it on the bed.

_ “And here we go with the final answer. Born in 1815, this daughter of a famous poet published an algorithm for a mechanical calculator and is believed by some to be the first ever computer programmer.” _

Mulder writes his answer immediately and Scully taps her pen against her teeth as the final Jeopardy music winds down. She finally picks up her paper and memorializes her guess before the final note.

“Whatcha got?” Mulder asks.

“I want to see their answers first,” Scully replies.

Mulder bounces his knee in anticipation. The contestant in 3rd place answers incorrectly with Dora Wordsworth, but only wagered $1.

“I hate when they do that,” Scully says. “It’s not The Price is Right.”

“Listen, if the category was Nuclear Physics, I might only be waging $1 as well.”

“Too bad it wasn’t.”

The contestant in 2nd place also answers incorrectly with “Who is ____?” and ends up with $4500. Mulder shakes his head.

“At least put something,” he says.

“Seriously,” Scully agrees.

_ “And now Judith, our three day champion, currently in the lead with $13,800. What did she guess? Who is Ada Lovelace? Daughter of Lord Byron, known for her work on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, August Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, or Ada Lovelace. And how much did Judith wager? $7,000, bringing her three day total to $65,941.” _

“Alright, Scully, moment of truth.”

“Count of three?” she asks.

“Is that one, two, reveal? Or one, two, three, reveal?”

“One, two, reveal.”

“Okay. One, two…” 

They both turn their papers around. Both answered Who is Ada Lovelace? They both grin.

“Frohike would be so tickled with your familiarity with the mother of computer programming,” Mulder says. 

“Yeah? How does he feel about your familiarity with her?”

“Pretty jealous, actually.”

“What was your wager?”

Mulder turns over the paper again to show her. “$3,000. You?”

Scully bites her lip a little and then flips the fold of her paper for Mulder to see. “$8,000.”

“$8,000!”

“Go big or go home, right?”

“Damn, Scully. You’re a monster. In a good way, obviously. But, damn. So, I guess that vegetarian is on me.”

“Extra olives.”

“With extra olives.” He grimaces and gets up to grab the Yellow Pages in the nightstand. 

Scully opens up her file folders and begins sorting the reports for review across the end of Mulder’s bed as he searches for a pizza parlor. He’s on the phone fairly quickly after browsing the phone book.

“Yes, I’d like to place an order for delivery,” Mulder says. “A large. Vegetarian.”

“Half vegetarian,” Scully interrupts without looking up. “Half pepperoni and sausage.”

“Sorry, half vegetarian, half pepperoni and sausage. Extra olives on the vegetarian side, please. Yeah, I’ll hold.” Mulder drops the phone to his shoulder while hold music plays and smiles slightly. “Scully, you interested in a rematch tomorrow night?”

“Depends on how interested you are in buying another pizza.”

The End


End file.
